Cigarette holder



April 11, 1939, L. J. JACOBSON CIGARETTE HOLDER Filed March 19, 1938 wie@ Patented Apr.A 11, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Application March 19,

5 Claims.

My present invention relates to the improvement in a cigarette holder and more particularly to that type of cigarette holder ordinarily used by smokers to prevent the end of the .s cigarette from coming in contact with the lips.

One object of this invention is to provide a device of the character described in which provision is made for iiltering the smoke drawn from the cigarette. Another object is to provide l0 a device of the class described having an inner chamber capable of holding a plurality of smoke filtering elements. A further object is to make provision in a cigarette holder for a compartment adapted to receive a medicated substance, perfume or the like. An important object of my invention is to provide a cigarette holder with a medicated element, such as a mentholcontaining filter, including manually adjustable means whereby the smoke drawn from the cigarette may be selectively made to filter through the medicated element, or to be by-passed therearound as the user desires. A still further object oi my invention is to provide a cigarette holder containing a smoke-filtering element in combination with an ejecting head whereby the latter may be removed from the body of the holder for the purpose of ejecting the cigarette stub.

With these and other objects in View, the invention consists in the novel construction, arrangement and formation of parts, as will be hereinafter more specifically described, claimed and illustrated in the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. l is a longitudinal section of my assembled invention, illustrating the dual compartment therein; 2 is a similar but fragmentary section, showing the ejector head removed from the holder and the ejecting plunger disposed in operated position; Figs. 3 and 5 are detailed sectional views taken along lines 3-3 and 5 5, respectively, of Fig. 1; Fig. 4 is a similar viev.7 but with the hereinafter described iilter members .i5 removed to reveal openings 6 and l; Fig. 6 i1- lustrates a modification of the ejecting mechanism; Fig. 7 illustrates a proposed marking of the manually adjustable head; Fig. 8 is a detailed section as viewed along 8 8 of Fig. 6 and Fig. 9 illustrates a practical form of the filtering unit employed in the preferred form of my invention.

With particular reference to Fig. l, the illustrated embodiment of my invention comprises a conventional mouthpiece I provided with internal threads at 2 and adapted with this expedient to 1938, Serial No. 196,882

be screwed onto a body portion 3. 'I'he latter portion is provided with a longitudinal partition 4 extending diametrically throughout the major length of the barrel 3 and dividing the latter into two parallel compartments.

One end of the partition 3 extends substantially even with the threaded end of the intermediate member 3, while the other end of said partition terminates into a washer or disc-shaped closure 5. This latter closure, together with the partition 4, may be molded integrally with the body portion or in any other manner desired.

From the description thus far, it will be apparent that the barrel 3, is divided into two compartments the adjacent ends of which are in communication with the hole in the stem i. The opposite ends of said compartments terminate at 5 but are rendered in communication with the cigarette through the respective openings 6 and l.

A portion 8 of the barrel 3 extending beyond the disc 5 is adapted to telescopically receive a cigarette retaining head 9; the latter being provided with a shoulder I0 for this purpose. One end of member 9 is shaped conically and adapted to yieldably hold the end of a cigarette and the other end of said member is closed by the medium of a Wall I2 except for a hole I3 in said wall and a relatively smaller central hole I4.

When the retaining head is fully telescoped "i` into the front portion 8 of the body 3 the wall I2 is disposed flatly against the member 5. It is thus apparent that the hole lI3 will then fall into registration with one of the holes 6 or 'I dependent upon the rotative position of the head 9 with respect to the body 3.

A pair of cigarette-like filters I4 and I5 are shown in the respective parallel compartments and it will be observed that each of said filters is designed to present a D-shaped cross section so that when the lters are placed back to back the general cross section is circular. The internal construction or design of the ltering members I 4 and I5 may be made in any well-known manner and I do not wish to limit my invention to any particular type of lter. Common lters provided with rolled crepe paper, filled with any other porous or filtering agent or medium, may be employed.

One use of my invention contemplates the provision of two lters one of which may contain menthol crystals in the filtering substance and the other ofV which may be plain. For purposes of identication I have marked the mentholated lter I4 with the letter M and the non-medicated Cil lter with the letter P. It is thus manifest that a user of the device may selectively rotate the head portion so that the smoke drawn through the cigarette will pass through either the plain or the mentholated filter.

Now it hasv long been known that menthol fumes have a soothing or cooling effect when inhaled with cigarette smoke and numerous attempts have been made to combine forms of menthol into cigarettes to` create such effects upon users thereof. The objections to this form of smoking is that the user must not only deviate from his favorite brand of cigarette in order to obtain cigarettes containing this cooling agent but also after smoking but a few of the treated cigarettes the taste becomes tiresome if not unpleasant. With my present invention these objections are obviously limited since the smoker may continue using his favorite cigarette yet, at the same time, selectively introduce the presence of menthol into his smoking.

From the foregoing description of the preferred form of my invention it is to be noted that I have incorporated means into a cigarette holder comprising an adjustable valve the operation of which permits the user to draw the cigarette smoke through a plain lter or through a filter containing a smoke-contaminating substance and that if the user desires he may eliminate either the plain or the treated filter so that when the smoke is drawn through the empty compartment, the user is permitted to smoke the cigarette directly, as he chooses.

With particular reference to Figs. I, 2 and '7 it will be noted that the dividing member 4 is made somewhat thicker towards one end and this eXtra thickness is provided to accommodate a centrally disposed round hole I6, extending longitudinally therein, Said hole is adapted to receive a plunger pin I1 which pin, by virtue of its coaxial relation to the hole, freely enters the latter when the head 9 is telescoped into the chambered body portion. The pin I1 is slidably disposed in the hole I4 and the front end of the latter is provided with a plunger head I8 fastened to the pin for longitudinal movement therewith. K

The purpose of the above described plunger mechanism comprising members l1 and I3 is to permit the user to eject the stub of a cigarette which can readily be done by removing the head 9 from` the device and pushing the exposed end of the plunger pin forward. In the illustrated form the plunger headv i8 is shown cross-shaped in order to provide four openings through which the smoke may freely pass. I am aware that cigarette holders incorporating ejecting mechanisms have been in use heretofore and the disadvantages of these former devices are that they are not only relatively complicated but are generally hard to operate because the manually movable member is very frequently made to pass radially through the body of the holder necessitating, for this type of construction, a fairly close t in order that air may not leak at the point of entry of the manually movable member. In my present ejecting mechanism these disadvantages are completely overcome since the iit between the pin i1 and hole I4 may be very loose indeed without interfering with the operation of the device. In order to facilitate quick renewal I of the filters I prefer to make them slightly longer than the respective chambers into which they are placed so that they extend beyond the rear of the dividing wall 4 a short distance and their renewal is made possible by virtue of the removable mouthpiece.

Figs. 6 and 8 illustrate a modification of my invention in which the valve action above described is obtained through the medium of a semi-circular member 2D pivotly supported at 2| to the head and adapted upon rotation in either direction around said pivot to selectively close the holes 6 or 1. Rotation of the valve member or vane 20 is accomplished through the medium of a control knob 22 which knob, pivot and vane are fixed together for rotation. One feature of utility in this form of control mechanism is that the vane 20 when rotated has a tendency to loosen the cigarette stub and if the head portion 9 is made suflicently short and the vane is rotated quickly the cigarette stub may readily be ejected with this expedient.

In the modified form illustrated in Fig. 6 a hole 23 is shown in the cigarette retaining head and with such an arrangement it is not necessary to place a mentholated lter in the upper chamber for the purpose of introducing menthol vapors into the smoke since this provision permits placing menthol crystals directly into this compartment through the hole 23. A ring 24, axially slideable with respect to the member 9, is provided to form an adjustable closure for the hole 23.

I claim:

1. A cigarette holder comprising a tubular structure having a longitudinal dividing wall therein, one end of said structure terminating in a mouthpiece and the other in a cigaretteretainingV portion, and manually adjustable means for directing the smoke drawn through said structure to pass selectively on either side of said dividing wall.

2. A cigarette holder comprising a cylindrical body portion divided into a plurality of compartments each of which is adapted to accommodate a filter member, and manually adjustable means for controlling smoke drawn through said holder to ow selectively through said members.

3. A cigarette holder comprising a cylindrical body portion divided longitudinally into a plurality of parallel compartments at least one of which is adapted to receive a filter member, and manually operable means for controlling the smoke drawn through said holder so as to how through said lter or to be by-passed therearound as desired.

4. A cigarette holder comprising a plurality of individual chambers, and valve control means for selectively causing the smoke tobe drawn through predetermined chambers, said valve control means comprising an ejecting device for the cigarette.

5. A cigarette holder having the intermediate portion thereof divided into a plurality of separate compartments, a manually operated member to control the ilow of smoke drawn therethrough to pass through different compartments, and an ejecting member movably supported by said holder, and also operable by said manually operated member.

' LOUIS J. JACOBSON. 

